Drop-on-demand (DOD) inkjet printers are commonly categorized based on one of two mechanisms of drop formation. A thermal inkjet (TIJ) printer uses a heating element actuator (e.g., a thin film resistor) in an ink-filled chamber to vaporize ink and create a bubble that forces an ink drop out of a nozzle. A piezoelectric inkjet printer uses a piezoelectric material actuator on a wall of an ink-filled chamber to generate a pressure pulse that forces a drop of ink out of the nozzle.
In DOD inkjet printers that use a scanning topology, both the printhead and the substrate move to print a document. The printhead travels back and forth in one dimension of the substrate and the substrate is advanced along another (typically orthogonal) dimension. In DOD inkjet printers that use a fixed printbar topology, only the substrate moves. The printhead spans one dimension (e.g., the width) of the substrate so only the substrate is advanced along the other dimension.
For industrial and commercial applications, the page feed rates and/or the page widths are much larger than what is common in home or office settings. Sizeable page feed rates and/or page widths are not well suited for the scanning topology as the scanning printheads would have to raster at speeds far in excess of what could be reliably supported without extremely costly mechanical components. Thus the fixed printbar format is better suited for the industrial and commercial applications. The fixed printhead format is also well suited for home or office settings as it offers greater print speed than the scanning format for the same printer footprint.
Use of the same reference numbers in different figures indicates similar or identical elements.